Dancing Through Life
by the laws of may
Summary: "Those who don't try never look foolish." Rachel wants to try so badly, but surely men as handsome and kind as Brody Weston come with a catch? Brochel, with lots of sweet Kurt/Rachel friendship. Rating likely to go up in later chapters. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**Dancing Through Life**

It was just coffee, Rachel told herself. It was just a work date. Brody had helped Rachel so much since her and her dreams arrived in New York City that treating her new friend to a cup of her newly-found treat was the least she could do. She didn't want to fall for Brody Weston, but it was difficult to resist. How could she, when everything Brody said and did made her tingle to the tips of her fingers (prettily manicured today in taupe)? Even the way he ate his pain au chocolate was perfect, polite nibbles and just the barest hint of the rich chocolate filling flecking the tip of his nose.

"I've been thinking, Rachel," he said, her name sounding as rich and dark and beautiful to Rachel as the pastry they'd just shared. "I know I said that I'd back off a little, and I have to respect Flynn's actions, but..."

"Brody!" Rachel giggled at the waggle of his eyebrows, knowing he was joking. "His name is Finn," she said, still laughing. She loved Brody's easy, affable sense of humour. "No, I know Finn's not coming back to me," she said, sadly. "I used to have nightmares he'd come back to me in a body bag, but now I have nightmares he won't be coming back at all. If he won't even talk to Kurt..." she continued, Brody's hand tilted under his chin in rapt attention.

"Rachel. It's been tearing me up. One of my friends from high school joined in the Army. Same branch as you told me Finn said he'd be in after basic, and I remember what it was like when she went through Basic. The dates don't add up. How when he did call you, you said it was quiet, in the background. Lorna said she couldn't get a word in over all the noise, and didn't Finn call you in the middle of the day? So I did a little detective work, and got Lorna to ask around at Finn's base. He was at Fort Benn, right?"

Rachel nodded. "Why would you do that?" her eyes started to sting, filling up with tears.

Brody placed a comforting palm on her arm. "Because someone needs to tell you the truth." His voice lowered. "Do you want to know the truth?"

"Yes," she said, defiantly, knowing it would hurt, but not knowing would be worse.

"Finn had an Entry Level Separation," he said, softly. "That means, for whatever reason, the Army didn't work out for him."

"Oh." Rachel's grief bubbled out a little, but she managed to keep it under control. "Thank you. For telling me the truth."

"You have to let him go," he said, tracing the outline of the pastry plate with his thumb. "He let you go the moment he sent you on that train."

Rachel didn't know what to say. Was she holding on to the way Finn had actually been, or a faded memory of the man she thought he could be? The fantasy and the reality had never matched up. How stupid she was, thinking all summer that he'd turn up without warning in his Army uniform, sun-kissed and lifting her up in the air for a sweet kiss? No, Finn Hudson wasn't going to do that at all. Suddenly, all the thoughts she'd had were replaced by how, in the end, all he had ever done was hurt her. Let her go. Kurt had been pushing her towards moving on with Brody from the moment he had met him; Kurt had said guys like Brody only had the right to exist in romantic comedies and told her daily she was crazy for passing up the chance to, "kiss that gorgeous face of his," but Rachel was stubborn. But just like that, the dream of _her_ Finn had faded into dust. She couldn't hang on to that dream any more, as much as part of her tugged and pulled at wanting that still; the same part of her that looked at her old engagement ring, sat sadly on the dresser in its tiny dark box.

Feeling a little bolder, wanting to be a little happier, she smiled at Brody. "Did we come here for a date?"

Brody paused, his light blue eyes twinkling a little. Rachel stared down at the oak table, following the whirls in the wood with her eyes. "I'm..." her voice lowered to the barest simmer of a whisper. "I suppose I lost my own chance at happiness at the same time Finn lost his. I suppose I'm not enough. Maybe that was why he said he joined the Army; because he thought it was the kindest way to let go of me?"

"No," Brody told her firmly. His smile was bright and brilliant, lighting up his face like some sort of statue in a museum. There had to be a catch. Guys who looked like Brody, who could have had any of the fish in NYADA's pond, did not go for girls like her with mannish faces and flat chests. "Rachel, you are more than enough. You're everything. How could you think you were anything less?"

Again, Rachel thought back to Finn. The times he'd made love to her, quick and rushed and clumsy and it had never made her feel particularly loved or desired. It felt like he never quite wanted to connect with the real her. The parts of Rachel she had tried to erase when she was with him - her passion, her intensity, her talent - were the parts of her that seemed to have driven her former fiancé away. She took a deep breath. Brody loved how brazen she was, and how he spoke her mind. Or, at least, he said he did.

It was time for that Rachel to make a reappearance.

"Maybe," she said, twirling a lock of soft hair around her finger, chocolate brown mixed with ombre the colour of the sun. "You could tell me some more?"

Brody smiled at her from across the table. He reached out with his gorgeous hand and traced the swell of Rachel's lower lip with his large thumb. She was so glad she'd worn just lip chap that day, because she knew her full lips were soft and sweet. The contact trailed fire across her lips that made them tingle, the ghost of Brody's touch still ingrained in his sense memory as he swept his thumb upwards.

"Well. You're beautiful here," he said, Rachel shuddering to the tips of her toes as he moved his hand up to gently stroke her cheek. He cupped the back of her head, giving it a playful tap. "And here," he added, before moving in to capture her mouth in a searing kiss.

This, she realised. This was what fireworks felt like, an explosion of red, gold, and green flashing behind her eyes.

"Wow," she said with a little giggle as they broke away. "That was just..."

"Wow?" Brody echoed as he reached across the table to clasp her tiny hand in his. "You're pretty good at making me lost for words."

From behind her, there was a slow, but steady clap. Looking over her shoulder, Rachel flushed a little as she took in the kind eyes of an old woman in a sable-colored trench who looked like she knew a lot about love, and life. She reminded Rachel of Joni Mitchell, a little, and she flashed the woman a gentle smile.

"He's a keeper, honey," she told Rachel, and then returned to doing the New York Times crossword.

Rachel squeezed Brody's hand tighter in response, but in the back of her mind, things were a lot more complicated than the sweet touch of Brody's skilled lips on hers.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

To Rachel, it genuinely felt like she was in an episode of Sex and the City. She walked through the streets of New York that evening, the wind a little brisk from the cool October air, harsh and crisp from across the Atlantic. The breeze hit her bare legs and her unbuttoned sweater twirled around her with whimsy. The shoes Kurt had insisted she buy were higher, steep pointed heels, but right now, as she made her way back to her and Kurt's loft on the J-train, it felt like she was walking on air.

As dedicated as she was, she'd been unable to fill her mind with any of the acting theory she'd tried to study - her head was so distracted with everything it felt like a buzz of insects trapped under a tall glass. Surely, she thought, after everything? Still? They'd kissed; she'd fallen for him, into him, literally. Yet her body only craved his strong but tender touch more.

When she finally walked through the door of the apartment, her previously bouncy hair was a little damp and flat, frizzy from the rain, but she still couldn't wipe the smile from her face as she fixed herself a mug of peppermint tea. Her brain screamed to tell Kurt what had happened, but the kiss just felt like an intimately beautiful secret she wanted to keep to herself.

"Not going to offer me a cup?" Kurt said, and Rachel gasped a little. She had assumed that Kurt was out. How did he do that? He tracked himself across the noisy floors of their apartment more stealthy than a jungle cat. Then, he tutted a little. Even in his sweats - Rachel was more than a little surprised to realise that Kurt Hummel wore sweats - his deportment was nothing but regal. "Oh." He said, simply, then looked at her again, drawing the syllables out. "_Oh?_"

"Oh?" Rachel echoed, clutching her Wicked mug in her hands, trying to warm herself from the October chill. "What do you mean, _oh_?"

Kurt smirked at her then walked over to the couch, where he'd been hand-sewing something which looked a little bit like a romper suit. It probably had a fancy name, but Rachel wasn't about to ask her roommate. Fashion wasn't her thing, as much as Kurt crowed on about "signature looks" and "fake it until you make it". She was happy to let Kurt plan outfits for her while she focused on the other challenges NYADA brought.

"Oh, just oh," Kurt said back snidely, and went back to his appliqué. "Safe to say that Brody's kiss didn't miss, hm?"

"How did you know I kissed Brody?" she asked him, as she sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him.

"Because," Kurt set down his sewing and started to weave his hands through Rachel's hair. "I've seen that look on your face before. You're absolutely smitten." He chuckled a little. "Two parts smitten, one part cat-in-heat, actually, but... I like it. Yes, Finn let you go, and I can't say this is exactly what _he_ may have had in mind for you, but your happiness is everything to me, Rachel."

Rachel instinctively leaned into his touch, so grateful that she'd managed to mature enough for someone like Kurt Hummel to become her best friend and soulmate. She'd known from the moment he'd signed her yearbook in senior year that their friendship would endure anything that could come between them, and Kurt was the one thing that had finally made New York feel like home. She wanted to tell Kurt all about the magical kiss, but there was something so special about it that she wanted to cherish the memory, hold it close to her heart and process it first. Also, she was mindful that although Kurt's face was brave and he was as attentive and caring as ever, he missed Blaine, and missed fairytale kisses himself.

"He does make you happy," Kurt said, patting the couch and indicating Rachel sit next to him. "Doesn't he?"

Rachel tilted her head on his shoulder; she suspected Kurt was wearing one of Blaine's old shirts and the material was soft against her cheek. "So far," she admitted. "But..."

"But you think there's a catch?" Kurt shook his head. "Rachel. You are talented, and beautiful. If I wasn't gay, I'd be proposing to you in a heartbeat. Hell, I am gay, and taken, and I still might be chasing off that tall drink of water."

Sniffing a little, Rachel briefly wished for something a little stronger than peppermint tea. Kurt had reminded her exactly why she was so distrustful of Brody. After everything had happened with Finn, who had been so caring and kind and romantic to her at the start and then shattered her heart like a crystal bauble, how could she let someone else in like that?

"I don't have much luck with tall drinks of water," Rachel reminded him. Kurt was silent, and Rachel sipped a little more at her peppermint tea. She thought of the many boys who'd entered her life only to hurt her. "Or shorter, curly-haired ones. Or Jewish ones with mohawks." She sighed, burying her nose in Kurt's t-shirt, trying to gain comfort from her best friend. Her heart shattering like a crystal bauble, she thought, and all she could think about was Finn. The way he'd been back at the end of their junior year as he sat in the library of McKinley, turning that show globe around in his hands, over and over and over.

"Brody seems to..." she started. "Brody is the only boy I've met who truly liked me for me. Not because I boosted his esteem; not because he wanted to use me for my talent; not because he was using me to try and get over someone else. I just think there's a catch. How can anyone be that kind, and nice, and genuine?"

"Would you call Blaine a catch?" Kurt said, and didn't wait for an answer. "Believe me. Nice guys _do_ exist. Blaine, and Mike Chang, and..." Kurt paused, knowing that Rachel would have known he'd been a little smitten himself back in the day. "Sam Evans." He shook his head. "I suspect you're thinking I should be loyal to my brother, but I have to admit, I haven't seen you smile like that since before he proposed, and nice guys _do_ exist!"

Rachel laughed. "Um, Kurt? Didn't you have that silly little crush on Finn _because_ he was a nice guy?"

"Don't remind me. I'd sooner crush on Ann Romney these days." Kurt shook his head. "Yes, Brody might not be the nice guy he seems, but I don't want you holding yourself back from something that could make you happy. And if he's not the nice guy he seems?" Kurt tapped his nose with his fingers. "I have connections."

Suddenly, Rachel's phone rang, the beautiful, crystal tones of her own cover version of Celine Dion's "Taking Chances" sounding out across their spacious loft.

"And speaking of..." Kurt said, smiling a little. "I'd say speaking of the devil, but my intuition tells me a certain Mr. Weston is _definitely_ saintly!"

Immediately, Kurt sprang off the couch and patted his cheeks in the gesture Rachel knew meant he was going to be occupied with Blaine on Skype for a while, and Rachel stared at the name flashing on her phone. Her fingers seemed to ache as they brushed across the keys, but with a heavy heart, she set her phone on the arm of the couch until it stopped ringing, and continued to drink her tea, each sip doing little to quell the waves of trepidation running through her stomach.

It wasn't fair to do this to Brody, but she just couldn't quite shake the feeling that one simple, delicious kiss might lead to so much heartbreak. She'd only just found her first friend in New York, and maybe that was all they should be, for a while?

Then, her phone vibrated, indicating a new text from Brody.

_"I looked at the stars in the sky, but none were as bright as you."_

Rachel curled her feet under herself and hugged herself into a ball. Briefly, she was tempted to text him back. Brody was outside, in the city somewhere. Thinking of her while he started up at the sky. The idea of watching the stars with him, his strong arm wrapped around her as they gazed at the constellations together was intoxicating._  
_

She felt horrible for letting his call go to voicemail, at passing up something that could feel so real, and be so good. But even now, the wound of Finn's love was still raw, and Rachel wondered whether she'd ever be able to gaze up at the sky without trying to find _his_ star again.

* * *

A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews! I am so happy to know I am not the only one who thinks Rachel/Brody are absolutely adorable together. Rachel's a little hesitant, but don't worry, they'll get there, and if you have any suggestions I'd love to incorporate them into the story. :)


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